A Crisis Of Faith 3/6/2016

Good Morning,

The fireplace is glowing  and the heat coming from it is just enough to take the chill out of the house. My mug of Door County Highlander Grog is working hard to assist with the warm up. Nothing like the comforts of home to make one content and happy.

Have you ever noticed that the slightest call by God on your life will cause a "crisis of faith". This is a term used by Henry and Richard Blackaby in their book "Experiencing God". I am a firm believer that the minute we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God begins to show us what He desires us to do, because He is always at work and desires a deeper relationship with Him. This is accomplished through meeting His invitations and the demands of the invitation. God is easy to work with.

 Jeremiah 33:3New King James Version (NKJV)
³ ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

It starts with attending church and worshiping regularly with a body of believers. This is a good place for beginners to see God at work because it offers many avenues for people to see Him at work and allows the Holy Spirit to call you to join in. Here's the crisis. You have to attend and that is not always convenient. Too bad, you adjust your schedule to God's timing and let Him work out the details. Early in my career I was always on call and my pager would go off constantly in church. It really did not allow me to sing in the choir. I knew God was calling me to teach Sunday School. I said yes to His call. Three days later I lost my job. I thought it was the worst thing that could happen. Three days after that my company let me know that I had received a promotion, had a better job and that I would still be wearing a pager that might ring now and then. It hardly ever rings. God solved the problem. But when I was first told that my job was eliminated my faith tumbled. (Crisis of faith)Through that experience, I learned to trust God more. I answered the call and God worked out the details.

Then for those who have children. God calls you to raise your children in His standards.  This is no easy task. God tells us plainly how to raise kids in the Bible. But kids do not always like to be "raised". Parents will often compromise instead of following what God wants them to do which is plainly stated in His Word. They do this so they do not have to take a stand of faith. They allow the kids to run the family and thus negating the call on their life. This is another example of a crisis of faith and requires the believer to trust God, take a stand and wait on Him. Many people do not see raising kids as a call to experience god on their lives.

These are two of many "Experiences With God" that I encountered. I am on in years now and July 7th 1981 when I chose to follow Christ seems like a thousand years ago. But I know this. From then until now God's invitations to join Him in His work continue. Each one has brought a "Crisis of Faith". Each time I embraced the crisis and waited on God to work it out and while I trusted on Him the experiences grew sweeter and relationship with God intensified.

I am going to be writing for a few days on those experiences to give our awesome God some praise for all that He has allowed me to see.  So tune in and we will let Him amaze us and show you how He can use even an idiot like me from time to time. Maybe then you will answer the call He has placed to you.

God bless,

Marty